On Wednesday night, Rudy Giuliani’s former close associate Lev Parnas dropped more bombshells on the eve of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.

In an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, he disclosed that Trump “knew exactly what was going on”—directly contradicting Trump’s own claims.

Who is Lev Parnas?

Parnas was one of two Ukranian-American businessmen that Rudy Giuliani—Trump’s personal lawyer—was working with to stick mud on Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

He admitted to Maddow their aim was to get Ukranian authorities to announce an investigation into Biden, even if it had no merit, so they could cast doubt on Biden’s candidacy.

When asked if Mike Pence knew, Parnas quoted Trump’s Ambassador Gordon Sondland: “Everybody was in the loop.”

WATCH the whole gob-smacking interview.

No wonder Daily Kos called it “the Scoop of the Decade.”

Why it matters

This is the clearest indication that we have so far Trump was trying to frame Joe Biden for corruption so he could win the 2020 election.

Key quotes

“He [Trump] knew exactly who I was especially because I interacted with him at a lot of events.”

“I was with Rudy when he would speak to the president — plenty of times.”

“That was the most important thing for him to stay on for four years and keep the fight going. I mean, there was no other reason for doing it.”